Free College Essays The Strength Of The Characters In A Raisin In The Sun

1264 words - 6 pages

The Strength of the Characters in A Raisin in the Sun

In A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry paints an impressive group portrait of the Youngers, a family composed of powerful characters who are yet in many ways typical in their dreams and frustrations. There is Lena, or Mama, the widowed mother; her daughter Beneatha, a medical student; Beneatha's brother Walter, a struggling chauffeur; and Walter's wife, Ruth, and their young son. Crammed together in an airless apartment, the family dreams of better days.

The character Beneatha knows much about her African past. Mama is very proud of her African heritage and believing it's importance. During the stage directing of the play ...view middle of the document...

Hansberry learned from him "...the way that most blacks lived, and the dangers of being an artist" (Cheney 45-46). W.E.B Dubois was an original thinker and a sociologist. Hansberry "...gained admiration for black intellectual, socialism, and black leadership" (Cheney 40). Frederick Douglass was a another writer. Hansberry learned about slavery and its psychology. She also learned a "...invaluable lesson that the sufferings of a people may be presented truthfully in ways that rise above propaganda to the level of art" (Cheney 36-37). A Raisin in the Sun is a very interesting play about the Younger's, a family that lives in the Chicago south side ghetto. The characters in the play are Ruth her husband Walter, their son Travis, also Beneatha and Lena. The family is poor and very much so hopeless in finding a new home. Lena is lucky though she found a very nice home in Clyborne Park in a white neighborhood. In the beginning of the play the family is waiting for a 10,000 dollar check. Each family member has there own thoughts on what they should do with the money. Lena wants a new home and so she could support the family, Walter wants to invest the money in a liquor store, and Beneatha wants the money so she could pay for medical school. According to Lorraine Hansberry, Joseph Asagai was her favorite character to create. He is a Nigerian student who is Beneatha's confidant. Mama is a very good example of a black matriarch trying to keep her family in line. Mama is a very religious women. She is up set and smacks Beneatha when Beneatha tells her that she does not believe in God. Mama tells her that if she lives in her house she must believe in God. Jean Bond's opinion was that "the play contained dramaturgical implications which were brought out by Walter" (Bond 212).

Catherine Scheader notion was "the drama had a great sense of spiritual conflict in the area of Walter Younger's soul with an obbligato of social awareness" (Scheader 216). According to Margaret Wilkerson he thought this play was "excellent and never before in the entire history of the American theater had so much of the truth of Black peoples lives been on stage" (Wilkerson 55).

The author, Patricia C. MCKissack proclaimed "A Raisin in the Sun is one of the greatly enhanced by well ordered revelation of the events which are so important in the lives of the characters" (MCKissack). Also Lorraine Hansberry kept our interest by developing the characters through out the play. The characters are people who collaborated with other people and confronting there confusion and anger. Elizabeth Phillips thought the play was old fashion and had almost no serious playwright. However he thought "the plays strength lied in the characters and the problem of Walter Lee" (Phillips). If the play was to be written...

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Hansberry, Lorraine.Â A Raisin in the Sun. New York: Random House, 1959. Print.

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